author/editor/teacher

9 to 5?

Yesterday I passed the 1/2-way point on typing the edits to my novel. When I stopped and re-read, something suddenly occurred to me. This story isn’t as good as I originally thought.

Oh Lord. Panic!

Nathan Bransford recently blogged about the Dunning-Kruger effect, in which people who are good at things, downplay their abilities, while people who are really bad, seem to think they’re the bees knees. I know that I tend to downplay my abilities a lot. I am extremely hard on myself. So part of me thinks this is just a temporary stumble in confidence. But there’s another part of me that wonders whether I’m right, and this still isn’t up to par.

I have always struggled with whether or not my decision to write full-time was hurting my family financially. So far, I’ve done OK, but not nearly as well as I’d like, so looking at this manuscript now… if it still isn’t good… is it time to go back to a regular 9 to 5?